"After serving east Pierce County for seven years — first as a state representative and then as a state senator, part of the Republican Majority Caucus —Bruce Dammeier, a resident of Puyallup, is going all in and running for Pierce County Executive.

'I was born in Tacoma and raised in University Place,' said Dammeier, a U.S. Navy veteran. 'I’m a Pierce County kid. I’ve climbed Mount Rainier. I’ve boated on Puget Sound. We live in a great place — a tremendous natural beauty. But our (county) government needs a culture change.'

'We need good jobs, and more of them in Pierce County,' Dammeier said. 'We need greater collaboration between cities and the county and school districts and more focus on citizens and not on bureaucracy.'

As Pierce County Executive, Dammeier said he would work hard at representing those towns and cities outside Tacoma, that for too long have gone unrepresented.

'While I am not anti-Tacoma at all, we need our county government focused on supporting all of our citizens, including those in Puyallup, Graham, Eatonville and across the bridge in Gig Harbor and in the Key Peninsula,' Dammeier noted."